For a couple years now I've been observing a family of local red foxes that return to a restricted area of a park during mating season. I've come to know the habits of them including where they like to enter and exit their protected area and wander into the local park.
One morning I spotted a young female who appears to be scouting a location for her den to raise her kits. I moved into a position where I expected to have a good vantage point, should she decide to leave that area while I was there. Sure enough, she soon started to wander toward a fence near where I was sitting. I got low, she spotted me, cautiously carried on, and made her way to a break where she could slip through.
She looked at me again and began to make her way in my direction, curiously stopping around 20 feet in front of me. She sniffed around the ground for a moment, kept her eyes on me, then turned to face the now rising sun. The golden light made her thick winter coat and eyes glow with life. We both took a beat to just enjoy the moment.
